In the Context Of is Chicago-based percussionist Mike Reed’s intriguing solo debut. Declining the opportunity to record a solo percussion album in 2003, Reed states in the liner notes, “My ideas and ideals as a musician, no matter how out front or supportive, have always stemmed from performing In the Context Of an ensemble.” In this spirit of collaboration he set out to pair up with some of his favorite local improvisers.

Reed’s varied experience comes from his memberships in The David Boykin Expanse, Rob Mazurek’s Exploding Star Orchestra, and the Josh Berman Quartet. Leading the Treehouse Project as well as his own quintet, Loose Assembly, Reed draws from this diverse pool of local talent, giving us a snapshot of the new Chicago avant-garde. Joined by three of his closest associates, Reed embarks on an exploratory journey. With guitarist Jeff Parker on two tracks and flutist Nicole Mitchell and keyboardist Jim Baker playing on three tracks each, In the Context Of is an experiment in timbre, rhythm, and overall spontaneous communication.

A diverse stylist, guitarist Jeff Parker possesses an infrequently tapped abstract sensibility that a session like this exploits with maximum glee. Soft chordal voicings and airy volume pedal swells are jettisoned for fret-board scrabbling and arachnoid antics that veer closer to musique concrete than traditional jazz. More reminiscent of his experiments with Michael Zerang and Scott Fields than his role in Tortoise, his duets here with Reed are as adventurous as anything he’s done. Reed accents Parker’s frenetic statements with a light touch, sporadic, but firm. Together they create a boisterous sonic engine that is all pings, zings, and blats.

Pianist Jim Baker breaks out his ancient ARP Synthesizer for these duets, dredging up undulating waves of sound, gurgling bleats, pitch-bend distortion wooshes, and stabbing feedback. On their first duet, Reed’s roaming tea-kettle percussion modulates into a delicate danceable groove. Reed plays this inverted drum-n-bass rhythm on the edges of his kit, while Baker’s ARP oozes gauzy sheets of electronic fuzz and percolating hiccups. Elsewhere, the duo engages in sparse, discursively insect-like ramblings punctuated by periods of fervent aggression.

Where Reed’s other duo partners treat him as more of a sparring partner than accompanist, it is with flutist Nicole Mitchell that Reed plays a more traditional role. Reed accompanies her with the utmost care, sometimes challenging, but never overpowering. His contributions, while still free, are more pattern-oriented than on the pieces featuring Parker and Baker. Mitchell’s artistry borrows from numerous sources; Rahsaan Roland Kirk’s innovations are as much an inspiration as traditional Japanese shakuhachi methods. Eastern-tinged drones, bluesy shifts in timbre, overblown multiphonics, and vocalized, flutter-tongued cries are all aspects of her diverse vocabulary. Her trilled arpeggios and thematically repeated harmonic motifs create skeletal frameworks that lure the pair into open-ended, rubato forms. These loose structural variations, omitted elsewhere, lend the album a more cohesive sensibility.

In the Context Of is a telling document of Chicago’s current improvisational lifeblood. Although more concerned with texture, dynamics, and interplay than melody, harmony, and rhythm, it is nonetheless an endlessly revealing listen.